There are as many ways to do a thing...

 ...as there are spinners to do it.

- Gartha Ray

I met Gartha Ray back in the 1980s when she and Olber were living in Clanton, Alabama, and demonstrating carding and spinning cotton wherever they could. She liked to repeat her saying about there being many ways to do anything, about there being no one right way.

At the November spinning study meeting, as I watched Barabara Tucker spinning, I remembered Gartha's saying. Barbara was spinning cotton on a 1980s Ashford Traditional scotch tension spinning wheel that had one of the older flyers with ratios that are usually considered to be fairly slow. That wheel with that flyer isn't a high speed cotton wheel, but Barbara was happily spinning lovely cotton singles. 

I love that about spinning and all things textile. So many ways to do a thing.

Barbara Tucker's bobbin of cotton singles.

I've enjoyed taking care of the guild blog for a while and I am happily turning it over to Reannon and Joel Dorning. I look forward to following their blog.

Note: If you have access to old issues of Spin Off magazine, I wrote an article about Gartha and Olber Ray for the 1993 spring issue.

Yarn Ball!!! December 10th, 10am at Hoover Church of Christ

This year at the Yarn Ball we'll exchange some holiday cheer with each other by having a gift exchange! We'll bring back this pre-COVID tradition of gifting that was so much fun back in the old days. We won't be stealing gifts, but after-party exchanges are always fine.

If you want to participate, bring a textile oriented bag or box or some type of container that a textile-maker would love to use. We are suggesting a price range of $10 to $25. Put your gift in a plain paper grocery bag so the participants can't see it. We'll explain the remaining details at the party.

Gather your finest Ball garb, your best or funniest tiara, and come enjoy a little fibery fun! If your holidays are too crazy, you don't have to participate in the gift exchange, you can just come hide out and knit with us for a while. 

There will be tea and light refreshments available. If anyone wants to join via zoom we will have a parade of tiaras for you. Check the email meeting notice that was sent to members for the Zoom information.

Yarn Ball Gift Exchange (meeting notice coming soon)

This year at the Yarn Ball we'll exchange some holiday cheer with each other by having a gift exchange! We'll bring back this pre-COVID tradition of gifting that was so much fun back in the old days. We won't be stealing gifts, but after-party exchanges are always fine.

If you want to participate, bring a textile oriented bag or box or some type of container that a textile-maker would love to use. We are suggesting a price range of $10 to $25. Put your gift in a plain paper grocery bag so the participants can't see it. We'll explain the remaining details at the party.

The Yarn Ball will be on the day of our December meeting, December 10, in our usual place. Gather your finest Ball garb, you best or funniest tiara, and come enjoy a little fibery fun! If your holidays are too crazy, you don't have to participate in the gift exchange, you can just come hide out and knit with us for a while.

November: Raveling & Unraveling, a lecture by Clare Emily Clifford

Raveling & Unraveling: Reflections on Life, Death, & Fiber Arts by Clare Emily Clifford.

Join us on Zoom for a meeting hosted by our fellow guild member Clair. Saturday 12th 10:00 AM. The Zoom connection numbers are in the meeting notice email sent to members. If you are a paid member and you didn't receive the email, send a note to "gbfiberguild at gmail.com" (not displayed as a normal address to keep automated trolls from scrapping it and being annoying).

This meeting will only be on Zoom. Do not go to our regular meeting place, no one will be there!

!Mailed-To-Your-Door-Prize!: 

A random number generator will be used to choose two members from the membership list. The winner will have the prize mailed to them at the home address on the guild member directory! All members will be included! You do not have to be present to win!

Yarn Ball! As in the pre-Covid years we will have a gift exchange as part of the Yarn Ball (the December guild meeting). The theme this year is containers. Think bags, boxes, holders, etc. We are suggesting a price range around $10 to $20.

October meeting is in-person!

Join us for a Spin Around 

When: October  8, 2022

Where: Hoover Church of Christ

Time: 10:00 

We will have a Spinning Round Robin to test out different spinning devices. This meeting will be in person only. No zoom option available this month since it will all be hands on.  

Bring any wheel, drop spindle, spinning device, or yarn fluff that you are interested in selling. This would be a great time for showing them off. 

Feel free to bring any spinning device you are willing to let others try also! We will have a good variety of spinning wheels and spindles to try out. There will also be door prizes for those who attend so come and give it a whorl.  

Mask recommended.

Fiber Frenzy this Saturday!

At last Fiber Frenzy is back! 

 

Join us at the Hoover Church of Christ for some fiber related fun from 10:AM to 1:PM. There will be demonstrations on many fiber forms including spinning, weaving, embroidery, knitting and more. Bring any questions you may have, or projects you are stuck on for help. Do you have unwanted fiber supplies? Help them find a new home, bring them in for a stash swap. 

 

We will provide a few snacks, but bring your own lunch if you wish. Masks recommended.

 

This is a happy wandering chatting event.This is the perfect meeting if you have been thinking about joining our group, or thinking about coming back after an absence.

If you can not join us in person we will have our zoom room open. There will be demonstrations and lessons shown on zoom and in person for the event. The zoom info was sent in the meeting notice for members. Not a member? It is easy to join online, click the Membership tab on this blog for instructions.

Mailed-To-Your-Door-Prize!: 

A random number generator will be used to choose two members from the membership list. The winner will have the prize mailed to them at the home address on the guild member directory! All members will be included! 

You do not have to be present to win!

Spinning Study this week!

Spinning Study meets this week, 10:00am at St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Patton Chapel in Hoover. Bring a lunch if you want! 

August guild meeting is Beginning Spinning with Karen Ford!

Join us for an in person or zoom meeting for beginners and experienced spinners alike! Learn the drop spindle with Karen Ford. For those joining in person, we will have drop spindles and roving available to give out to members while supplies lasts. Any visiting guests can pay $10.00 for a spindle and some roving fluff, or just $3.00 for some roving fluff.  Feel free to bring your own spindle and roving if you already have them. BFL roving is recommended if you have it. Let Yvonne know if you want a spindle kit and plan to join the meeting via Zoom. 

This meeting begins at 10:00 and will last until noon-ish. If you'd like to join us in person, we'll be in our usual place at Hoover Church of Christ. If you want to attend remotely, the Zoom info was sent to members in the meeting notice email.

Masks are not required, but we are concerned for our members and wearing your mask might protect others. So, masks would be appreciated.

We will not be providing snacks for this meeting, feel free to bring your own if you like.

! Mailed-To-Your-Door-Prize!: 
A random number generator will be used to choose two members from the membership list. The winner will have the prize mailed to them at the home address on the guild member directory! All members will be included! You do not have to be present to win!

Call for presentation proposals at the Weaving History Conference

The guild received the following letter from Marina Loew, Curator, Thousand Islands Arts Center, Home of the Handweaving Museum. See the contact information at the end.

Hello weaving friends!

I wanted to share with your guild that the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center (Clayton, NY) is currently seeking presentation proposals for this year’s 27^th Annual Weaving History Conference (WHC)! The WHC will be held virtually October 24-26, and the deadline for proposals is July 29^th. Proposal extensions are possible – just let me know and we will work it out!

Last year’s conference was an incredible success – not only did we have more than three times the amount of attendees over previous years, but we also gained new members and friends; increased our reach; and attracted an international audience. Not to mention the fabulous lineup of presenters and the huge amount of accolades they all received!

Anyone interested in the conference or in submitting a proposal should check out our website at: https://tiartscenter.org/weaving-history-conference/

July guild meeting is a color program!

Join us for a zoom meeting with Alanna Wilcox.

Saturday, 7/9/2022

10:00am

(Members should have an email in their inbox or spam folder with the meeting information and Zoom numbers.)

Alanna Wilcox is a fiber artist, professional educator, Master Spinner and color specialist with acid dyes. She loves empowering fellow fiber enthusiasts by helping them overcome their creative challenges, learn new skills, and achieve their fiber related goals through her expert instruction via online workshops and books. Alanna is constantly making things, especially projects that have to do with color and fiber to express her creativity. She earned the OHS Spinning Certificate with distinction in 2015 and the Master Spinner Certificate in 2017. She wrote and self-published the spinning book "A New Spin on Color" in addition to developing over 2,000 precision dye formulas to color match digital images and HEX colors. Her newest book "Color Alchemy: From Digital to Dye" will be available in a course she is developing for dyers and spinners that pairs the science of color with the art of dyeing. Working with fiber is something that she lives and breathes, sometimes literally. See her web site at:

https://www.alannawilcox.com/

World Wide Knit In Public Day!

GBFG will demonstrate for WWKIP day tomorrow, June 11, 1:00pm, at the Hoover Library. It's going to be great!

Take your knitting with you tomorrow and knit in public!

The June guild meeting is a field trip!

 

Join us for World Wide Knit in Public Day on Saturday, June 11. We are joining Purl on the Plaza and the Hoover Library for this public event. Everyone is invited! There is a whole host of activities planned to celebrate the wonderful world of fiber crafts. There will be door prizes, demonstrations, show-and-tell, plus plenty of fellowship. 

Please bring something that you would like to demonstrate and share with others. Demonstrations are open to any fiber art, not just knitting, all fiber arts are welcome. Is anyone willing and able to demonstrate Tatting, or felting for example? Jen is planning on bringing her great wheel out to the event! Come out to give it a spin!!

Come and go from this event as you feel comfortable. We want everyone to feel safe here as a top priority. Make the best decision if you want to leave, even if you just arrived. 

Visit The Textile Museum online

The Textile Museum at the George Washington University Museum is a tremendous textile resource online.

My introduction to the Textile Museum was their journal. Articles are scholarly and topics are thoroughly researched with extensive references.

The online collections are inspiring. 

There are hours of video presentations available. 

The Textile Museum online is a great resource for textile research and an inspiration for our own fiber work. 'Like' it on Facebook to get their posts added to your feed.

May Guild Meeting, this Saturday!

Heirloom Textiles Show and Tell

Date: May 14th 2022 (we meet on second Saturdays of the month)

Time: 10:00 am 

Hybrid meeting: Hoover Church of Christ Fellowship Hall on the lower level and on Zoom

Do you have an amazing tablecloth that was handed down through your family or an incredible embroidered bedsheet that your great Aunt Rose made? Share your Heirloom fiber works or tools either on Zoom or in person. 

Show us the things that are too big or too fragile to leave the house via Zoom or bring your fiber pieces with a family story if you are joining in person. We will take turns sharing and make sure everyone in the Zoom room and in person gets to participate.

This is our first in-person guild meeting back at Hoover Church of Christ and we are very grateful to them for sharing their facilities with the guild again. We'll be in the large auditorium so there is plenty of room to spread out and lots of air flow. If you haven't attended a guild meeting there, park in the small parking area that faces Lorna Road and walk down the steps to the double metal doors.

This week we will have one door prize for our in-person attendants, and one mail-to-your-door prize for our zoom attendants. 

Guild Study Groups

Sharing is one of the big benefits of guild meetings and that is especially true for study group meetings. Recently, a member mentioned online that she is interested in knitting with beads. A few days later at the spinning study meeting, Deborah Naramore (far left) brought six amazing hand-knitted and beaded shawls with packages of the beads she used, the patterns, and a tiny crochet hook to demonstrate how she places the beads as she knits. YouTube is great, but getting to ask questions and hold beautiful things in your hands is so much better.

The spinning study group is currently meeting in person on the fourth Wednesday of every month at 10:00am at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Hoover. There is a roll call a few days before every meeting on the guild members' Facebook group.

The crochet and tatting  study group meets on Zoom the third Tuesday of every month at 6:00pm. They also meet and share on the Crochet and tatting thread on GBFG's Ravelry forum.

Spin & Weave Night is a group of spinners and weavers that meet at night, the first Thursday of each month on Zoom in the GBFG Study Group Zoom room, 6:30 to 8:00pm. They use email and a Ravelry thread, Spin & Weave Night.

The band weavers study group has been on hiatus, but has been talking about resuming their meetings. They were meeting on the third Saturday of every month at the Hoover Public Library and those in person meetings may start back soon. This group communicates via an email group and a Ravelry thread on GBFG's forum, Band Weaving.

A new study group was recently organized by guild members who share an interest in quilting. They are meeting in the guild's study group Zoom room on the first Saturday of each month at 1:00. There is also a Ravelry thread, Quilting Quests, used for conversations and information sharing between meetings.

If you are interested in any of our study groups, contact them through the guild members' Facebook group or their Ravelry group thread by following the links above.

Spinning Study meets in-person this Wednesday, April 27

The guild's spinning study group will meet in-person this Wednesday, 10:00, at St. Peter’s Catholic Church. Park in the back, come through the big double doors, walk straight to the back wall and turn left. The room is big, so everyone can spread out. Everyone is welcome!

Rainy picnic? Why not!

The weather forecast says it is going to rain early tomorrow. The pavilion is going to be there, rain or shine. Bring a towel, bring a lunch, bring your Show and Tell in a rain-proof bag and come anyway. Plus there will still be door prizes, or pavilion prizes (because there are no doors), or rainy picnic prizes!

There's a new yarn store in our area!

 The Shelby County Reporter posted a story about Paper Crane Yarns, a new yarn store in Calera. Ashley Jeffcoat, the owner, is also a dyer. Supporting an independent yarn shop seems like a great excuse to buy yarn, or maybe a project bag!

Reminder about the date of the picnic

This is a reminder that the monthly guild meeting for April, the annual guild picnic, is not this Saturday, but a week from this Saturday, April 16. Monthly guild meetings are usually on the second Saturday of the month, but not this month. 

We hope you'll join us on April 16 at Oak Mountain State Park. More picnic info is here.

Watch this site for picnic information updates.

Online presentation April 26 from the Textile Society of America

 

(re)claiming Lost Traditions in Native American Textile Art

Image: Bison-dogbane skirt, Nan Awaya Ranch, Antlers, OK. Deidre Elrod, Multimedia Photographer. Courtesy of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

TSA Colloquium Series (re)claiming futures

Find more information here

Session 1: (re)claiming Lost Traditions in Native American Textile Art

Date and Time: Tuesday, April 26th, 2022, 7pm EDT / 4:00 pm PDT. This is a virtual event.

$10 TSA Members / $15 nonmembers. You will receive a Zoom link in your registration confirmation email. To become a TSA member and support programs like this, join here.

This event is one in a series of four presentations offered through this year. The cost is for this April 26 event.

Happy International Tatting Day!

 Happy International Tatting Day! The traditional way to celebrate is to tat, wear something tatted, and eat chocolate. What a great tradition! 

ETA: The Crochet and Tatting study group of the Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild will celebrate International Tatting Day on Saturday,  April 2, by having our first in-person gathering since the pandemic began. We'll meet at the Pelham Public Library at 10:30 to tat together with a mini class taught by Julibeth Jones. Details are posted on the group's thread on the guild's Ravelry forum.

ETA: Apologies to Julibeth. I'm sure we all prefer her real name and not the misspelled version originally posted. 

April 16, Save the Date!

 

Our first in-person gathering in two years! Please note that the picnic is on the third Saturday of April and not our usual second Saturday. 

We have a beautiful pavilion location, the Cedars. It is wide open and we hope it is a healthy and safe first step toward meeting together again. Just to be safe, instead of our usual share buffet for lunch, we'll all bring our own food and drinks.

We'll start gathering at 11:00 and you are welcome to stay as long as you want, the park closes at 7:00 and we have reserved the pavilion for the entire day. Bring your family and enjoy the park. There is an admission fee, which we'll reimburse you for when you get to the pavilion. 

There will be a few door prizes, a throw-back to the good old meeting days. Make sure you sign in when you arrive so you can win. More importantly, bring things you've made and something to work on. Be ready to share your work during our favorite guild meeting activity, Show and Tell!

It is going to be great to be together again. Can't wait to see you there!

Keep your eye on the guild's social media for more information. Guild members will receive email with details (so pay your dues, if you haven't already).

March guild meeting this Saturday!

Our guild March meeting will be a question and answer discussion with weaver Jane Stafford. Members can check their email for instructions for sending in your questions. 

See Jane Stafford's web 

We'll be on Zoom, use the 2021 access numbers. See you this Saturday, March 12, 10:00am.

February Guild Meeting this Saturday

Program: DIY Yarn Rosettes

Date: February 12th 2022

Time: 10:00am until 12:00pm 

Place: Zoom meeting room (see member's email for connection information)

Let's celebrate Valentines day and learn to make some yarn rosettes. Several years ago, member Ruth Truett shared her yarn rosettes with the guild and they were such a big hit that we decided to re-visit this great technique for using bits of precious handspun or left-over beautiful yarns. Any yarns will work, but it is probably easier to learn the technique with worsted weight yarn. 

Find rosette attachments on the emails sent to members about this meeting.

In the original email, there are two attachments. One is an outline to make the cardboard circle ‘loom’ that will be needed. There is a printable handout with instructions for making the rosette. The last email sent contained a phone and table version of the handout. Both the print and screen-ready versions of the handout contain the same information. 

Bring some yarn scraps, a cut out card board circle based off the attachment, a yarn needle, and scissors. 

We will teach you the technique for the rosettes. If you have any other rose, flower or valentines day fiber decoration process that we can all learn you can share that afterwards.

January Guild Meeting this Saturday

Happy New Year!

January Guild Meeting

Date: Saturday, January 8
Time: 10:00

Program: New Year Crafting Resolution and Goals

Let's talk about what your crafting goals are for 2022. Do you want to
learn a new skill, finish a project that you started 3 years ago, or maybe
try a new pattern?

How can we help you with these resolutions? Bring your ideas for future
meetings as well. This can include things you have wanted to learn,
crafters that live far away while we can take advantage of using Zoom
meetings, new topics or ideas to explore. Do you have a skill you would
like to present, or a future topic we can discuss for a future meeting. Lets
refresh and recharge for a bright new 2022!


Dont forget Membership Dues and Renewal for 2022
The Guild’s membership year runs January through December. Annual dues are $25. Please pay your dues yearly before February 28. Thank you! You may pay by cash/check at any meeting or mail your check to Jennifer Lackey (check your email or use the link below to write and ask for Jen's address). Dues also can be paid using PayPal. Mark it *“friends/family” and NOT “goods/services”. Use this link: paypal.me/GBFiberGuild or use our gmail account gbfiberguild@gmail.com


Mailed-To-Your-Door-Prize: A random number generator will be used to choose two members from the membership list. The winner will have the prize mailed to them at the home address on the guild member directory! All
members will be included!

You do not have to be present to win!